Fresh IPAs...Does it really matter?

Beer staling follows the Arrhenius Equation; which is indeed logarithmic.

Below is a graph which demonstrates this logarithmic relationship.

Cheers!

 

Just had 3 month old Surly Furious. It was kept cold - I never would have known it was not fresh. No stale cardboard taste, tons of hop aroma, plenty of flavor.

 

True. In fact I can't think of a single piece of automated equipment, regardless of function, where proper maintenance is not critical to its effective operation.

 

Below is a link to an article discussing taste testing of Firestone Walker Union Jack over time (and varying storage conditions).

Here is an extract from that article which also demonstrates the importance of cold storage:

“What about the one-month old samples? The 30-day warm-stored sample fared better but was easily differentiated from the 30-day cold-stored IPA. While less bright in aroma than the super-fresh bottle, the 30-day cold-stored sample was still excellent and plenty hoppy. The most surprising aspect of the demonstration was the way the bottle stored for four months at 40F compared to the bottle stored warm for a month. They were really close in aroma and flavor profile, and many of the tasters said they’d be hard-pressed to identify which was which.”

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/06/beer-is-the-new-milk-drink-it-fast.html

Cheers!

 

Personal rule of thumb is to pass up any IPA that is more than one month old whether I buy it from a cooler or warm. Reason is I don't know how long it has been in the cooler - Could be an hour, a day or the entire month. When I get it home, it goes directly into my beer fridge. Never had a problem or a bad one.

 

I seriously doubt it's an option for anyone who isn't personally buying the beer as it rolls off the line. In PA we see the conditions at the distributors because we buy directly from them more frequently. I guaranty the distributors supplying more traditional six-pack based retailers in other states follow the same practices. There isn't a big enough margin, even in craft, to justify huge refrigerated warehouses where no beer is ever stored at room temperature. Most of the distributors in my area even charge a small premium for refrigerated cases to cover the inconvenience and cost of keeping them chilled. And 90-95% of the beer that is in the refrigerated section is BMC products that people buy cold because they plan to drink the entire 30-pack in the truck on the way home.

 

Storage conditions for most beers in many breweries and especially the distributors/shipping is where I have the largest problem, not keeping the product cold is really not good for the beer.

 

Freshness is important, but it's perception has gotten overblown and out of control with IPAs. As mentioned a thousand times already, proper storage is more key to improving the beers shelf life more than anything once it leaves the brewery.

 

I did a blind test with Pliny. One was two months old and one was 1 week old. I was able to identify the fresh Pliny.

I understand it is not scientific but it was enough for me.

 

I've tried Jai Alai 4 times. every time the hops are dead in the can .grassy and aweful, really. The last time I had it it had one day on the shelves at Deciccos in Armonk. one day.

 

My best guess is that those cans were heat mistreated somehow, in transport would be the most likely.

 

brewery fresh hoppy beer lasts

I would agree. I ran to the store to get them as fresh as I could too. bummer.

 

Provided the cans are in spec, and the equipment they are being packaged on is designed to handle the rigors of canning beer. Beer like an IPA will certainly keep better in a can, but that's all still going to be entirely dependent on how it is handled outside of the brewery.

 

Don't really have a good frame of comparison between different ages but I have had older SNPAs, SN Torpedos and Firestone's and they all tasted fine to me. I do think that the resellers cold-store them between shipping, though.

I don't remember how fresh the Stone and DFH beers were that I've had but I was pretty satisfied with those, too.

 

Yes. Drink an IPA at the brewery that was tapped a few days ago. Then go buy a can/bottle of that same IPA that was packaged 3 months ago. You'll notice a difference.

 

The Retail Beer Distributors that you and I buy cases of beer from is an entirely different business entity than the Wholesale Beer Distributors that breweries sell their beer too.

It is up to each brewery to negotiate terms and conditions as to how the Wholesale Beer Distributor stores their beer. I am uncertain how breweries 'police' these terms; maybe they used the brewery's Sales Reps to do this. Wholesale Beer Distributors do have refrigerated warehouse space. As to whether they can store their entire stock this way is something I am unsure of.

Perhaps @sierranevadabill can provide more details on how Sierra Nevada Brewery deals with their numerous Wholesale Beer Distributors:

• Does every one of their Wholesale Beer Distributors store their beer refrigerated?
  
• Maybe some of the beer is stored cold and others aren't?
• etc.

Cheers!

 

What a great post, this should be stickied somewhere. Whether it's a hefeweizen, IPA, Oktoberfest...etc. freshness is crucial. Even malt forward styles with "just a kiss of the hops" like a Helles can display huge differences when consumed "super fresh" from a brewery.

In fact, the only reason I urge someone to go on the Sam Adams tour is to have a Boston Lager fresh from the brewery (even though it's just an R & D facility). That was by far the most incredible Boston Lager I've ever had. One can test this with any style at their local breweries in their tasting rooms and compare it to what they receive in a liquor store.

What boggles my mind the most, is that many Beeradvocates will reserve this "super fresh" theory for IPAs only, and won't even apply it to other hop forward styles, like a German pilsner. Just because it's a lager and isn't 100 IBUs, doesn't mean the hops fading still won't effect the overall flavor profile/balance of the beer.

 

Goose Island claims their IPA will remain "brewery fresh" for 6 months. Anyone buying it? I like it and it's at a great price point locally (especially at Costco; 24 cans for around $22) , but anything past 1-2 months I generally pass on. Would like to know if it really holds up.

 

I agree with what alot of u guys are saying., most ipas I purchase at about 3-4 weeks old if I'm lucky, although I still end up having a few up to roughly the 3 month mark, try to not to go over that. Dark. Refrigerated @37 degrees.. Although some like Jai alai really do change. Jai alai 2 weeks old is more dry to me and super hoppy and the tropical is just in the background, where a 2 - 3 month Jai alai tastes like a oily orange soda with tons of malt backbone to me

 

from the article:
"You may think that your palate is sensitive enough to pick off such subtle age variations; I encourage you to try it blind next time and see if you change your tune."

Where are the blind taste-test results among our posters?

The point of the article wasn't to offer an opinion that fresher IPAs are better. The point was that when put on the spot by a blind taste test, the experienced drinkers had a hard time telling the difference between fresh and old.

I would like to see BAs test it out rather than tell me they don't drink IPAs older than a week. Your experience that fresher IPAs are better isn't news and a lot less interesting than results from a blind taste test.

@KingBiscuit -- I bet you'd be surprised by the older Goose Island IPA. I can't vouch for that beer in particular, but inside of 3 months, IPAs hold up much better than advertised here on BA.com. In fact, most of our blonde and amber ales here in Texas fall off much, much faster than the IPAs -- the blonde and amber ales generally don't have all those hops to fight the malt as they age. The IPA was invented for longer storage periods. They're built to last.